Sponsoring a farmer in Western Australia
Sponsoring a farmer in Western Australia is possible for six named occupations — but the Core Skills Occupation List excludes a position the moment it predominantly involves low-skilled tasks, and its own examples name exactly the work many WA agricultural employers most need filled: livestock feeding and general farm labour. A "Dairy Cattle Farmer" or "Poultry Farmer" nomination can be refused on this ground alone, however genuine the labour shortage, if the position is not actually one of farm management responsibility.
This page sets out which farming occupations are specified for a subclass 482 nomination, the low-skilled-tasks exclusion that decides whether a given role qualifies at all, and why no mandatory skills assessment attaches to these occupations, each identified against the specific provision it comes from. Advertising, sponsorship obligations and salary are dealt with only so far as they bear differently on a farming position, with links to the pages that cover each in full.
Which visa pathway this page covers
The requirements set out below are those of the subclass 482 Skills in Demand visa, the pathway most WA agricultural employers use to sponsor a farming role. Two further employer-sponsored options exist, and which one actually suits a given position is a question of fact, not of preference.
- Subclass 482, Skills in Demand. A temporary visa. The occupation, advertising, obligation and salary requirements described on this page are those of this pathway.
- Subclass 186, Employer Nomination Scheme. A permanent visa, and usually the pathway an employer has in mind for a farm manager it intends to keep on. It carries its own nomination criteria, not the criteria set out below.
- Subclass 494, Skilled Employer Sponsored Regional (Provisional). A provisional visa for a position in designated regional Australia, specified by instrument. A large share of WA agricultural land falls within regional Australia, but whether a given property qualifies is a question to confirm, not assume, and this pathway has criteria of its own.
The choice carries commercial consequences as well as legal ones — different charges, different processing times, different ongoing obligations — and the advertising requirements are not identical across the three. Settle the pathway before any advertisement is placed — it is the first question to resolve with a registered migration agent preparing the nomination. Our employer sponsored visas page compares the three in more detail.
Sources: Migration Regulations 1994, Schedule 2, Parts 186, 482 and 494, compilation F2026C00667, 1 July 2026. Migration Act 1958, section 140GBA, compilation C2026C00232, 4 June 2026. The criteria for subclasses 186 and 494 are not set out on this page; the requirements described in the sections that follow are those of the subclass 482 pathway.
The six farming occupations the instrument specifies
The Core Skills Occupation List specifies a small, named set of farming occupations for this visa, each against an ANZSCO code:
- Aquaculture Farmer, ANZSCO 121111, item 3
- Apiarist, ANZSCO 121311, item 4
- Dairy Cattle Farmer, ANZSCO 121313, item 5
- Goat Farmer, ANZSCO 121315, item 6
- Pig Farmer, ANZSCO 121318, item 7
- Poultry Farmer, ANZSCO 121321, item 8
An occupation applies to your nominee only where the tasks they will actually perform correspond to the tasks specified for that occupation under the relevant ANZSCO code — and, as the next section sets out, only where the position is not excluded by an applicable circumstance regardless of the code. General "farm worker", "farmhand" or "station hand" is not itself a named occupation on this list; a position advertised or described in those terms has to be tested against one of the six occupations above, or it does not fall within this framework at all.
Source: Migration (Specification of Occupations—Subclass 482 Visa) Instrument 2024 (LIN 24/089), subsection 6(1) and the Core Skills Occupation List at subsection 6(3), items 3–8, Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064. Made under subregulation 2.72(9) of the Migration Regulations 1994.
The exclusion that decides whether the role qualifies at all
Every one of the six occupations above carries the same applicable circumstance in column 3 of the Core Skills Occupation List. Where that circumstance describes the position being nominated, the occupation does not apply to the nominee at all — not as a matter of discretion, but as a matter of the instrument, and before any other criterion is even reached.
The circumstance, in the instrument's own words
"The position predominantly involves responsibility for low-skilled tasks." The instrument gives two examples directly on point for agriculture: fruit picking or packing, or feeding of livestock or animals. A second example, truck driving, is also common on a farming property and is excluded on the same basis.
This is the fact that decides most of these nominations before the ANZSCO code is even considered. A genuine Dairy Cattle Farmer, Pig Farmer or Poultry Farmer position — one carrying responsibility for herd or flock management, breeding decisions, production planning and the running of the operation, not day-to-day feeding and cleaning duties — is not touched by the exclusion. A position built around the physical, day-to-day work of feeding, mustering, picking or driving is excluded, whatever title the advertisement gives it. The distinction turns on what the position predominantly involves, not on how it is labelled.
A trap worth naming for a seasonal or labour-shortage hire
A WA agricultural employer facing a genuine shortage of hands for lambing, shearing, harvest or general property work will often reach for the closest-sounding occupation on the list — Dairy Cattle Farmer for a dairy hand, Poultry Farmer for a shed worker. If the actual position is predominantly the physical work rather than the management of the operation, the nomination is exposed to refusal on this ground, independently of how strong the candidate is or how genuine the labour need. This visa framework is not a general route for farm labour.
Source: LIN 24/089, subsections 6(2) and 6(3), and the Applicable Circumstances List at subsection 7(2) item 5, Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064.
Why no mandatory skills assessment attaches here
A separate instrument specifies which occupations attract a mandatory skills assessment for this visa, and for which candidates, by listing each occupation, its assessing authority and a class of passport-issuing countries. Not every occupation on the Core Skills Occupation List is on this second list.
None of Aquaculture Farmer, Apiarist, Dairy Cattle Farmer, Goat Farmer, Pig Farmer or Poultry Farmer appears in the mandatory skills assessment instrument at all. No assessing authority is specified for these occupations, and no candidate is excluded on the basis of the passport they hold.
Contrast with a trade occupation
A diesel motor mechanic or a fitter is assessable by Trades Recognition Australia for candidates holding a passport from a specified list of countries, unless an exemption applies. None of that machinery exists for the six farming occupations named above. This is a fact about which occupations the instrument lists, not a general statement that agricultural nominations face no scrutiny — the low-skilled-tasks exclusion above and the salary question below still have to be satisfied.
Source: Migration (IMMI 18/039: Mandatory Skills Assessment—Subclass 482 Visa) Instrument 2018, sections 5 and 6, Compilation No. 2, compilation date 14 December 2024, F2025C00062. Made under subregulation 2.26B(1) and paragraph 1240(3)(g) of Schedule 1 to the Migration Regulations 1994.
Advertising a farm management role
Labour market testing applies in the ordinary manner, and the available exemptions are narrow: at least two advertisements, in English, each commissioned or authorised by you as the approved sponsor, with applications or expressions of interest accepted for at least four weeks from first publication, all within the four months ending on the day the nomination is lodged. The placement and content rules are set out on our labour market testing page.
Write the advertisement to the management role, not the labour shortage
An advertisement written to attract candidates for a farm management position — naming the responsibility, planning and decision-making the role actually carries — supports the occupation claimed on the nomination. An advertisement written around day-to-day duties, because that is genuinely what the business is short-staffed on, works against the nomination it is meant to support, for the same reason the position itself may be excluded under the circumstance above.
Source: Migration (LIN 18/036: Period, manner and evidence of labour market testing) Instrument 2018, sections 6 to 9, Compilation No. 5, compilation date 7 December 2024, F2024C01268. Made under section 140GBA of the Migration Act 1958.
Sponsor obligations on a seasonal or mixed-duty property
Sponsorship is three distinct approvals, not one application: you are approved as a work sponsor under section 140E of the Migration Act 1958, the position is separately approved as a nomination under section 140GB, and the worker then applies for the visa. Approval brings ongoing obligations under Division 2.19 of the Migration Regulations 1994, which our standard business sponsor page sets out.
The obligation that bears most heavily on a seasonal or mixed-duty property
The nominated occupation obligation, regulation 2.86, continues for as long as the sponsorship does. A person sponsored as a Dairy Cattle Farmer who is in practice rostered onto general property duties for extended periods — common on a working farm where everyone pitches in during a busy season — presents a compliance exposure once that pattern departs materially from the nominated occupation. Rostering and duty allocation are worth checking against this obligation on an ongoing basis, not only at the point of nomination.
Sources: Migration Act 1958, sections 140E and 140GB, compilation C2026C00232, 4 June 2026. Migration Regulations 1994, Division 2.19, regulations 2.77 to 2.87C, compilation F2026C00667, 1 July 2026.
Salary for a farm management role
A minimum salary level applies to the nomination, and the position additionally has to be remunerated at the annual market salary rate — the earnings an Australian citizen or permanent resident earns, or would earn, for performing equivalent work on a full-time basis for a year in the same workplace at the same location. For a farm management role, that comparison is usually against another Australian manager or supervisor on the same or a comparable property, not against an award rate set for general farm labour — a further reason the distinction in the exclusion above matters commercially, not only as a threshold question.
The threshold is indexed annually under regulation 5.42A of the Migration Regulations 1994, so we provide the figure applicable on the day, together with the current application charges and levy, at the first consultation. Our cost of sponsoring an employee page covers the costs of sponsorship in more detail.
Source: Migration Regulations 1994, regulations 1.03 and 5.42A, compilation F2026C00667, 1 July 2026.
What we would ask you at the outset
Six matters generally decide whether a matter of this kind proceeds without complication. This is also, as a matter of how we work, the order we ask for them in — the actual scope of the position before a candidate, because the occupation code and the low-skilled-tasks question both turn on what the role involves, not on who is proposed to fill it:
- what this person will be responsible for in an ordinary week — management and planning duties against day-to-day physical work, and roughly what proportion of the role each occupies
- which of the six named occupations, if any, the position genuinely corresponds to
- whether the property sits within designated regional Australia, if the subclass 494 pathway is being considered
- whether you have advertised, where, and when applications opened and closed
- what an equivalent Australian farm manager or supervisor earns at your business, or a comparable one
- whether the role's duties are likely to shift with the season, and how that is managed against the nominated occupation once sponsorship is approved
Those six matters generally settle whether the matter can proceed on its current footing or whether something needs resolving first. That conversation costs nothing, and it commonly prevents a nomination being lodged against a position the instrument excludes from the outset.
Questions WA employers ask
Can we sponsor someone to help with general farm labour, such as feeding stock or harvest work?
Not under this framework. The Core Skills Occupation List excludes any position that predominantly involves responsibility for low-skilled tasks, and the instrument names fruit picking or packing and feeding of livestock or animals as its own examples. A position built around that work is excluded regardless of which farming occupation title is used on the nomination.
Source: LIN 24/089, subsection 7(2) item 5, Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064.
Which farming occupations can actually be sponsored on a 482 visa?
Aquaculture Farmer, Apiarist, Dairy Cattle Farmer, Goat Farmer, Pig Farmer and Poultry Farmer are the occupations specified on the Core Skills Occupation List. Each has to be a genuine management-level role in the relevant enterprise, not a labouring position, for the reason given above.
Source: LIN 24/089, subsection 6(3), items 3–8, Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064.
Does a Dairy Cattle Farmer or Poultry Farmer nominee need a mandatory skills assessment?
No. None of the six farming occupations named on this page appears in the instrument that specifies mandatory skills assessments for this visa. No assessing authority is specified for these occupations, and no candidate is excluded on the basis of the passport they hold.
Source: IMMI 18/039, sections 5 and 6, Compilation No. 2, compilation date 14 December 2024, F2025C00062.
What actually distinguishes a qualifying position from an excluded one?
What the position predominantly involves, not its title. A role carrying genuine responsibility for herd, flock or crop management, breeding or production decisions, and the running of the operation is not touched by the exclusion. A role built around day-to-day feeding, mustering, picking or driving is excluded, whichever of the six occupation titles the advertisement uses.
Source: LIN 24/089, subsections 6(2) and 7(2) item 5, Compilation No. 3, compilation date 7 November 2025, F2025C01064.
For how long must the position be advertised before we lodge?
At least two advertisements, in English, each commissioned or authorised by you as the approved sponsor. Applications or expressions of interest have to be accepted for at least four weeks from first publication, and the entire exercise has to fall within the four months ending on the day the nomination is lodged.
Source: LIN 18/036, sections 6 to 9, Compilation No. 5, compilation date 7 December 2024, F2024C01268.
Does a WA property in a regional area change anything?
It may open the subclass 494 pathway, a provisional visa available for a position in designated regional Australia, which is specified by instrument. Whether a given property qualifies as designated regional Australia is a question to confirm against the current instrument, not assume from location alone, and subclass 494 carries its own nomination criteria separate from the subclass 482 requirements described on this page.
Source: Migration Regulations 1994, Schedule 2, Part 494, compilation F2026C00667, 1 July 2026.
What salary are we required to pay?
The position has to meet the applicable minimum salary level and be remunerated at the annual market salary rate — what an Australian citizen or permanent resident earns, or would earn, for equivalent work on a full-time basis in your workplace at your location. We do not publish the operative threshold figure on this page, because it is indexed annually and a printed figure goes stale the moment it changes. We provide the current figure, application charges and levy at the first consultation.
Source: Migration Regulations 1994, regulations 1.03 and 5.42A, compilation F2026C00667, 1 July 2026.
Speak with a registered migration agent
Australian Migration Co is a registered migration agent in Perth. Adam Kocoglu is a Registered Migration Agent, MARN 2418576, and acts for WA agricultural employers on sponsorship, nomination and visa matters.
Further information is available on our employer sponsored visas page, our visa agent Perth profile, and on labour market testing for a 482 visa.
We cannot tell you what a decision will be, and no registered practitioner will. We can tell you what the criteria are, what your position has to satisfy, and where the risk sits before you commit expenditure to it.
This page reflects the law as at 25 September 2026. It is general information, not advice about your circumstances.